Are you having trouble finding appropriate ad-free Web sites for your preK-2 math students? Are you looking for different ways to teach some basic math concepts? Check out these sites designed for preK-2 students -- and their teachers.
Count Us In
This site, maintained by the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), provides resources designed to accompany ABC's children's program Count Us In -- "a lively and fun exploration of mathematics topics" for young viewers. The site includes 15 interactive children's games -- dealing with such topics as counting, patterning, addition, subtraction, fractions, measurement, and more. Games are simple with brief directions, and should be suitable -- and fun -- for most students in preK-2. Directions are written, not recorded, however, so non-readers might need initial adult help. In addition, all games require the Flash 5 Player or higher. The site also provides 15 teacher resources (classroom lessons and activities), one for each of the 15 Count Us In episodes.
K-2 Math Activities
Enchanted Learning's K-2 math resources include number rhymes, color-by-number and color-by-sum printables, number and math activity worksheets, code puzzles, graphic organizers, patterning worksheets, worksheets for teaching about money, for playing domino gamesand much, much more. Whatever type of math related printable you're looking for, chances are you'll find it here. As always, Enchanted Learning provides a bountiful array of practical, immediately useful, and educationally sound classroom resources.
This South Washington (Minnesota) County Schools site provides links to 125 online K-1 math games. Arranged in topics that include number sense, place value, addition, subtraction, fractions, patterns and functions, measurement, money, and time, this comprehensive list offers interactive lessons and activities appropriate for every ability level. Whether you're looking for a review lesson for your struggling students, a reinforcement activity for your average students, or an extension game for your brightest students, you'll be sure to find exactly what you're looking for.
The K-2 math section of NASA's Kids Science News Network provides ten complete lessons designed to introduce students to such topics as fractions, graphs, measurement, money, estimation, and more. Each lesson includes an overview of the concepts involved, a 60-second video featuring animated characters Barkley and Ted Tunes; and an Activity section with lesson plans teachers can use to further explain, demonstrate, or reinforce the concepts in the video. Looking for another way to teach patterns? Check it out!
Mathline, from PBS Teacher Source, provides more than 3000 lesson plans and activities for students in pre-K through grade 12. The K-2 section of the site includes lessons on such topics as counting, measurement, patterns, shapes, addition, ordering, pictures, and graphs, problem solving, and more. Just choose a topic from the drop-down menu, watch a video of a teacher demonstrating the lesson, and then access a written version of the lesson plan to try it yourself.
ALSO WORTH A LOOK
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Article by Linda Starr
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